To the Editor:

As New York homeowners and businesses across the state perform the annual rite of September and write the school tax check, most of us are aware that we pay the highest school property taxes in the nation — approximately $19,500 per pupil, according to the United States Census and the Tax Policy Center.

Most taxpayers don’t realize the national statewide average per pupil is $10,600, almost half of New York State. In fact, two “low tax” states, Utah and Idaho, spend $6,200 and $6,600, respectively.

The costs per pupil are critical because they translate to the largest component of New York property taxes, our school taxes, which year after year are in the top one or two states in the country.

As a result, New York State’s combined (school and municipal) taxes are 2.5 to 3 percent of the value of a house, while the national average is 1 percent. For example, a $200,000 house in the city of Albany might be taxed at approximately $6,000, while in Oregon, a “national average state,” the taxes on the same $200,000 house might be $2,000.

And you wonder why wealth is abandoning New York?

Ever notice, when lists of the best schools in the nation are published, as Newsweek Magazine recently did, in the typical top-100 high schools list, most of the winners are magnet schools in large school districts? Rarely does an upstate New York State school get ranked unless it’s in an affluent school district with almost unlimited resources (and usually brutal taxes).

Typically, the best schools in the nation, for example, the Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Tech (Georgia); the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Tech (Virginia); the Dreyfoos School for the Arts (Florida); the Gilbert Classical Academy (Arizona); the Michael Debakey High School for Health Sciences; Academy of Aerospace and Engineering (Connecticut); have one thing in common: They are in large, county-based school districts.

We have one of these districts right here in New York State — New York City, with its over 1,100 high schools. Ever hear of the Bronx High School of Science; or the High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College; or the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts? Top 100 schools on everybody’s list.

And here’s an interesting fact: The million-pupil New York City School District, where the cost of living is double that of upstate New York, spends less per pupil, approximately $18,000, than upstate schools! The economy of scale at work!

So, what if we could combine our schools under a larger entity, such as the county — as is done in the majority of other states? And what if the result were lower taxes and better schools?

I’m not talking about closing schools, or laying off teachers; I’m referring instead to getting our school districts into the 21st Century through economies of scale.  We would still have 12 public high schools in the “Albany County School District,” each with its own sports teams and unique characteristics.

Savings could be realized by having one superintendent, one business office, ordering a million rolls of paper towels instead of 10,000, efficiently coordinating bus routes without concern about small school-district lines, and so on, and so on.

We are in the age of Google, Microsoft, and even Walmart, for better or for worse, yet we operate our schools as if we were driving our buckboard wagons out to the frontier.

What if, in this imaginary scenario, we had combined the 12 current Albany County school districts into just one district — and with a little ingenuity, had perhaps the Guilderland High School of the Arts; the North Colonie High School of Health Sciences; and the Albany High School of Vocational Technology?

Imagine how the students would feel if they could focus on a course of study which interests them! And perhaps grades would improve if they had to compete for admission to the school of their choice!

In some states, the students can leave high school with a degree to be a licensed practical nurse, a pilot’s license, and a plumber’s apprenticeship. Contrast that to New York, where most of our upstate schools are starving, every year reducing course offerings, while each district competes for limited dollars. And still, the cost is over $19,500 per pupil!

The age of the mom-and-pop drugstore has come to a close; the age of the mom-and-pop school district has also run its course.

Look, we’ve all had friends who have left New York due to high taxes. There is no end in sight for the continuing death cycle for the taxpayers and the district schools unless we change the paradigm.

If I had the governor’s ear, I would propose that he offer one county, on a competitive basis, money and resources to consolidate all its schools, to be completed within three years. I suspect more than one county, the early adoptors, will come forward with an ambitious agenda. This would be a start.

New York, particularly upstate New York, it’s time to try something new, before we all abandon the state. 

Steve Greenberg

Voorheesville

Editor’s note: Steve Greenberg and his wife own a property-management company, SSG Management, so, he said, “We pay a lot in taxes.”